As promised last week, teaser materials for Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises have begun to hit the web, starting with your first look at the threequel's first teaser poster -- a nifty upward shot of Gotham City crumbling to reveal a bat shape in the sky. Hit the jump for a full look at the poster and keep an eye out for the also-reported first teaser trailer allegedly hitting this week.
Not even lackluster reviews can stop Todd Phillips' highly anticipated R-rated The Hangover Part II. Wednesday's midnight shows brought in a whopping $10.4M, Warner Bros. has the Bangkok-set sequel planned for the biggest opening ever for an R-rated film, and it's going into a five-day holiday weekend. Pundits estimate a $100M or higher opening take, and you know what that means: get ready for a Hangover Part III. [Deadline]
With J.J. Abrams not quite yet confirmed (but expected) to return to helm Star Trek 2, which Paramount has already set for a June 29, 2012 release, Deadline does the math: That leaves 13 months to go from what Paramount currently has in hand -- a 70 page outline, according to Roberto Orci -- to fully delivered film. But is that truly enough time to finish scripting, prep, shoot, and edit a massive, effects-heavy summer action tent pole?
Director Jon M. Chu is one of the few working filmmakers with an intuitive grasp on filming in 3-D, as evidenced by his dynamic visuals in Step Up 3D and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, so the idea of a G.I. Joe sequel released in 3-D actually sounded promising. But Chu always said he'd rather go 2-D than rush a post-conversion on the action sequel, and a report today suggests that's just what will happen.
Horror remakes and sequels are a dime a dozen, but low-budget flicks like Paranormal Activity have boosted interest in making yet more moneymakers, no matter how redundant they sound on paper. Enter The Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes, a new "found footage" sequel to the classic horror pic that will shoot this summer for a January 2012 release. What say you, Movieliners? Will this familiar concept be drawn thin or reinvigorated by the whole "found footage" shtick?
The MMA sequel Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown has a new trailer, and it's got everything: Topless young men getting sweaty in the gym, winsome love interests who may or may not be strippers, at least one slo-mo jump-punch, and plenty of Michael Jai White, who co-stars as an aging MMA veteran-slash-mentor and makes his directorial debut. "Why exactly are you in this thing?" asks a comely young lady. "I need this," answers Beefy Never Back Down 2 Ingénue #4. Don't we know it.
The Ginnifer Goodwin-Kate Hudson chick lit adaptation Something Borrowed, based on Emily Giffin's bestselling beach read, didn't exactly score with critics (Read Stephanie Zacharek's takedown here) and came in at #4 over the weekend with a $13.9 box office take. But producer Molly Smith, speaking to Movieline Monday, is optimistic that a sequel will move forward -- and she's counting on fans of the novel to buoy demand.
Real talk: I was, perhaps foolishly, only mildly curious about the in-the-works sequel to Alexandre Aja's boobs 'n' blood killer fish pic Piranha 3D, which we recently learned will take place in a water park, because of course. But then came the shocking revelation that three characters will return for the sequel, Piranha 3DD -- at least two of whom I'd thought were goners for sure. See who lives to fight fish another day after the jump!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a number of high-profile films in the works, but the Jon M. Chu-directed sequel to 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra isn't one of them. After the jump, watch JGL expertly break the news while avoiding Dark Knight Rises talk, enthusing over Rian Johnson's Looper, and pimping his new film, Hesher.
As soon as Paramount selected Jon M. Chu (Step Up 2 the Streets, Step Up 3D, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never) to direct their upcoming G.I. Joe sequel, the filmmaker faced the uphill battle of changing the perception that he was just a dance movie guy. But in a new interview, the helmer goes long on his love for the property, explains his vision for the sequel, corrects Rachel Nichols' Tweet that certain characters might not return, and vehemently swears that he'd rather make a 2-D film than convert to 3-D in post.
Everyone seems to love the retro '60s vibe of Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class. But do we really want to see Professor Xavier, Magneto, and Co. slogging through the not-quite-as-fashionable 1970s and 1980s in potential sequel story lines? (Think hard about this. On the one hand: Magneto in bellbottoms doing lines with Emma Frost at Studio 54. On the other: Dazzler.)
At the age of 19, Logan Lerman (The Patriot, Jack & Bobby, Gamer) has been acting for over a decade and later this year will take on the most iconic character of his career -- one of the most recognizable heroes in literature, even: D'Artagnan in Paul W.S. Anderson's Three Musketeers. Lerman made his first trip to WonderCon with footage from the October 2011 3D action pic in tow and sat for a quick chat with Movieline about Anderson's insane-looking take on the Alexandre Dumas novel, the reportedly in-the-works sequel to Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and a little-known YouTube user known as monkeynuts1069.
James Nguyen, the possibly-delusional former Silicon Valley software salesman-turned-filmmaker behind the truly awful-and-not-even-in-a-good-way 2008 cult pic Birdemic (on DVD shelves this week), is hard at work on Birdemic 2: The Resurrection. That's the bad news. The good news: He's filming it in 3-D -- and the untrained Nguyen assures the Wall Street Journal that he's "completely mastered the art of 3-D cinematography." The self-described "Master of the Romantic Thriller" adds that the sequel might have something to do with the La Brea Tar Pits. We take it back. This is all bad news. [WSJ Speakeasy]
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